savage kingdom | jj project

68⇢first clash

"Umm, Mr. Park...Sir," Mark doesn't know how to address Jinyoung's father properly without sounding brash or anything. "Hello, I am Jinyoung's friend Mark. I..."

"I know who you are boy and I don't need anyone to speak on behalf of my prodigal son. I'd like to hear from him. I'd like him to explain what was this whole drama all about? For now, I am ready to assume that you have lost your mind for real and have no regards for your family's reputation or my reputation. So go on, I am giving you a fair chance, speak up."

Jihoon, despite of relying heavily on his walking stick, looks every bit intimidating to all the boys with his deep set voice booming in the foyer. Jaebum has heard enough about him and he has no difficulties in drawing the parallels with Jinyoung's descriptions.

"Speak."

Jihoon's sudden growl shakes Jinyoung to his bones. But he has to get a grip and reason with his father before things take a turn for worse.

"What do you want me to say?" Jinyoung's voice doesn't reach Jihoon's aging ears.

"Speak louder. Did you forget you are a well bred man? Or have you become emasculate these days? Sleeping with men, making your goddamn life and hundred years of family reputation a public joke? Such a disgrace," Jihoon enunciates to prove how much of an autocratic person he is. Not to mention a sort of misogynist as well.

Jaebum bites down on his tongue to hold himself from saying something before the right time. He can't tolerate how Jinyoung's father rebukes his son. Jinyoung could have gotten used to the insults but Jaebum clearly isn't. His fists ball up at his side and one hand remains trapped within Jinyoung's.

"Say something new. You have called me a disgrace hundred times already."

"Don't you dare talk back Park Jinyoung. You are testing my patience," Jihoon lifts up his walking stick briefly off the ground to slam it back against the marble floor.

His eyes cast down hellfire. Jinyoung is muddled enough already and he doesn't know what exactly his father wants to hear from him and where he should start.

Should he start from the very beginning? Narrate his whole ordeal with Jaebum? Or should he skip all the parts and straight to the middle? Is he supposed to explain how much he loves Jaebum and why he was taken away by that boy secretly? Or is it okay for Jinyoung to just say something which might rile up his father and risk getting hit one again?

Jinyoung isn't afraid of the physical injuries anymore because he is familiar with the scars that the mental agony leaves. Plus he knows, Jaebum will protect him, from everything and everyone.

"What do you want appa?"

Mark and Jimin sport identical expression of looking like terrified little kids. Jaebum is gritting his teeth so much that his jaws hurt at that point and Jinyoung feels his hands sweating in Jaebum's grip as he asks a simple question whose answer might not be too simple.

Jihoon smiles and it's definitely not out of love or happiness for his son. He is upto something, Jinyoung knows it well. He was about to say something that Jinyoung won't comply with.

"This circus needs to stop. I've pooled enough money for your worthless self, suffered enough headache to take anymore. You've done what you were not supposed to do and now I have to put extra efforts to clean the mess you made. And this boy..." Jihoon lifts up his stick and points at Jaebum. "I am warning you for the first and the last time. I am not pressing charges against you on one condition. Do not keep any contact with Jinyoung and if I find you defying my words, getting behind the bars will be the least of your worries. Do you understand?"

If only Jinyoung could laugh at the moment and tell his father that was asking for the impossible, he would. Instead, he briefly smiles and shakes his head from side to side.

"And what exactly happens to me if I keep in touch with Jaebum?"

Jihoon cocks his brows.

"Then you can fend for yourself. I don't have any room for your absurdities anymore. And that's final."

Jimin sucks in a sharp breath and Mark blinks wordlessly.

Jinyoung isn't surprised like the others. His father was subtly talking about disowning Jinyoung and frankly, he was ready for that anyway.

"Sorry to say but the circus will go on. You can go fuck yourself with your rules, regulations and commandments. I don't care."

Jaebum was being a mere spectator of the show until now but the moment he realizes that Jinyoung has crossed the line of respect between father and son, he intervenes.

"Jinyoungie, don't," he whispers but everyone hears it anyway.

"What did you say?" Jihoon's eyes are blowing up in disbelief and others can tell he might have had a series of cardiac arrests at the moment or something or he was ready to go to a war.

"You heard me," Jinyoung smiles a bit wider, a bit too wide to prove that he is slightly deranged anyway and it  infuriates Jihoon to the point that he charges at his son.

The Park brothers might have never seen their father move so fast on his feet, despite of being sick for a while now. The walking stick is hoisted up in the air at one point and the next it's jams horizontally into Jinyoung's gut. He screams and doubles over to fall on his face but Jaebum holds him. While the other two boys were frozen on spot at the violent turn of events, Jaebum can't stop himself from glaring back at Jihoon. He used to think his father was the worst of all the patriarchs until he finds his boyfriend shriveling up in pain after getting hit by his father.

"This is how you talk to your father? Huh? What kind of imbecile have I raised? Apologize right now,' Jihoon shouts at Jinyoung again who was on his knees, clutching at his stomach.

Something shifts within Jaebum the moment he spots Jinyoung coughing slightly. There is red on the edge of his mouth and Jaebum loses it completely. As Jihoon raises his stick once again to extract an apology from his son, Jaebum grabs hold of the weapon. With one quick motion, he swiftly snatches it away and throws it all across the foyer with all the force he was capable of mustering. As the lover and father of Park Jinyoung lock eyes, Mark stands helplessly on the sidelines, cursing himself for being the reason of Jinyoung's ill fate once again.

Why can't I do something right for once? He wonders and beats himself up in his head. He wants to fight Jihoon for being the heartless person he is but he is dumbfounded when Jaebum steps up to defend Jinyoung.

"I don't care if you are his father or anybody else. Don't touch Jinyoung and don't dare to hit him again," Jaebum puts his pointer up in front of Jihoon's face.

Jaebum's face is radiating heat and in the back of his mind he knows that saying anything to Jihoon won't help but at the same time he can't stand idle and watch Jinyoung getting abused in front of his eyes either.

He had to do something and he does it.

And for the first time in his life, Jaebum feels worthy enough for Jinyoung.

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